Game or toy for building card houses



March 18 ,1924. 1,487,102

H. E. HODGSON GAME OR TOY FOR BUILDING CARD HOUSES Filed May 24. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTO E7 7 Patented Mar. 18, 1924.

U N HT. E5 JS T A TES HARRIETTE E. HODGSON, 0F.1\TEW YORK, N. Y.

' GAME 'OR TOY'FOR' BUILDING CABD"HOUSES.

Application filed May 24, 1922.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRIETTE E. H0DG- SON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Manhattan, in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Game or Toy for Building Card Houses, of which the following is a specification.

Of the various amusements of early childhood, it is safe to say that few possess a stronger attraction than the building of card houses, and this is an occupation which has not in any Way lost its appeal with successive generations despite the great and probably undesirable multiplication and complication of devices for childish entertainment. This simple game, as now appreciated, is not a mere idle occupation, but develops in a peculiarly satisfying manner the childs creative instinct, increases dexterity, and also has an unconscious educational value, both arithmetical and in the direction of design, due to the numbers and varying groups of spots, and the shapes of the pips and the fascination of the designs upon the face cards. There is a decided limitation, however, as to the form of structure that can be built, and it is this limita tion that the present invention aims to remove while preserving all the essential value of the immemorial game. The improvement will also serve for the relief of elders whose assistance is often called for b very young and inexpert builders and w o are likely to find themselves somewhat deficient in the patience and sureness of touch required for the successful erection of the edifices.

My improved game comprises a pack of cards which are provided with perforations as hereinafter described, in combination with a set of pegs, preferably of two or more lengths, which are adapted to serve in connection with the perforations for fastening the cards together in a great variety of forms. By this means wide scope is afforded for ingenuity, structures such as circus tents, roofed and walled houses and churches, forts, ships, chute-the-chutes, and many others, beside the primitive storied A structure, being made possible. At the same time the cards are not so altered that, on the one hand, they cannot be used for building the ordinary simple card house without pegs, if desired, which is good for Serial No. 563,248.

dexterity, or on the other hand so that they cannot be used for playing cardgames.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof:

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of the game boxed, the cover of the box being broken away to indicate the pack of perforated cards in one compartment and the set of pegs in another compartment;

Fig. 2 is a face view of one of the perforated cards;

Figs. 3 and 4 are side views of two of the rough pegs, of different lengths; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one form of structure built with the cards and pegs.

A suitable box 1 having a cover 2 is provided for the game, there being two unequal compartments separated by a division 3, one for the pack of cards 4 and the other for the pegs '5.

The pack of cards illustrated is a conventional pack of playing cards consisting of ace, king, queen, jack and spot cards; but each of the cards is punched with a plurality of round holes 6 of special arrangement. Preferably there is a row of three holes near each end, one in the longitudinal middle, and the others near the side edges or corners, together with another similar row of holes at the transverse middle of the card. This disposition of the perforations afl'ords practically the maximum of possibilities for constructional purposes, but the arrangement is not necessarily fixed, as more or fewer holes might be used.

The pegs 5 are of a thickness to be inserted readily into and substantially fill the holes, and are rough so as not to slip. They are desirably formed with heads 7 at one end. The pegs are shown oftwo lengths, long and short, but this may be modified.

For simplicity, and because it is the typical card-house, I have shown in Fi 4 how a several-stage A-tent house can be built with the aid of the pegs. Here it will be seen how the long pegs can be used to join and brace the cards at points Where they are widely separated, while short pegs can be passed through perforations of adjoining cards where they are near together, still other of the pegs standing in holes of certain of the horizontal cards to serve as stops or abutments to prevent spreading of the inclined cards. The pegs can be used in these and in a great variety of other ways,

and the difierent kinds of structures, other than the simple one shoWn, that can be built is limited only by the imagination of the child. Continuous Walls, planes or curved surfaces can be made by overlapping the cards fiatwise at the edges so that perforations register and passing the pegs through these registering holes.

The more elaborate structures are made of two or more packs of the cards and a corresponding equipment of pegs, and the game can be packaged in boxes of different sizes containing one, tWo or more packs.

The invention adds very little to the cost of production of an ordinary pack of cards, as the cards can be punched in packs, and the cost of the Wooden pegs is slight.

What I claim as new is:

A game or toy for building card-houses comprising a pack of cards provided With specially located perforations and a set of pegs adapted for insertion in said perforations whereby to pin and brace the cards together in spaced relation in various structures.

HARRIETTE E. HODGSON. 

